|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
124.168.24.110
In Reply to: RE: I Need More than Three Years................ posted by Todd Krieger on December 10, 2010 at 17:39:10
At least our conclusions do. Not trying to create an argument as each of us can only come to conclusions based on our experiences.
In my case I've finally achieved first class reproduction from digital, something which took a lot of time and money. The first Eureka moment was when David Schulte of The Upgrade Company modded the Esoteric UX-1 LE and I suspect his mod aimed at reducing the RF you refer to. Anyway his mod was so good I was able to sell the G-Os Esoteric masterclock as after his mod it made absolutely no audio improvement (and it did before the mod). Please note I had a good experience with DS but I have seen posts where this was not always the case.
The next Eureka moment was the purchase of Sennheiser HD800 headphones, items I'm generally not comfortable about, but the reproduction to the Sennies via the Nugent modded Benchmark is so good I'll wear them. Note that at this stage the digital feed was ex the modded Esoteric - I have posted about this before,
The final Eureka has been the ripping of over 6000 CDs (a ghastly job BTW) into a two twin 2 TB HDDS in a Meridian Sooloos sytem. The reproduction via the Sennies is as great (in terms of clarity, lack of distortion, soundstaging, reproduction of nuances and general musicality) as via the Esoteric.
So my experience is that progress has been made with digital reproduction and obviously differs from yours. We are most likely both correct in the context of our experiences, although this must make for confusing reading by others!!
John
Sadly (or is it happily?) an incurable audio-video nutter with an indecent number of toys. Classical music forever!!!!
Follow Ups:
"In my case I've finally achieved first class reproduction from digital, something which took a lot of time and money."
Stress the word "finally"...... There doesn't seem to be a lot of people who have reached that point, and many have simply given up or just lived with something they're not totally satisfied with.
I agree about the time, but not the money. My two reference rigs, one might cost over ten grand retail (Prism DA-2 DAC), but the other costs around $500 (Don Allen mod Philips CDC-935 or Marantz CC-45).
"The first Eureka moment was when David Schulte of The Upgrade Company modded the Esoteric UX-1 LE and I suspect his mod aimed at reducing the RF you refer to."
Anybody who actually addresses RFI in a digital audio design ought be moved to the head of the line. I don't recall such an anecdote before.
The Esoteric designs are not as recent as you think. I remember auditioning the products around the Year 2000..... I even agree that it's a top performing digital source.
"The next Eureka moment was the purchase of Sennheiser HD800 headphones, items I'm generally not comfortable about, but the reproduction to the Sennies via the Nugent modded Benchmark is so good I'll wear them. Note that at this stage the digital feed was ex the modded Esoteric - I have posted about this before,"
AFAIK, the Nugent mod bypasses the ASRC on the Benchmark.........
"The final Eureka has been the ripping of over 6000 CDs (a ghastly job BTW) into a two twin 2 TB HDDS in a Meridian Sooloos sytem."
Please, back up those drives!!!!
"The reproduction via the Sennies is as great (in terms of clarity, lack of distortion, soundstaging, reproduction of nuances and general musicality) as via the Esoteric."
Did you actually sample the audio before ripping all those CDs? (The only person who I know who committed to ripping anywhere close to this many CDs onto a hard drive initially raved about the system like it was the greatest thing ever, then six months later regretted it.) This is why I've never took such a plunge, and unlikely I ever will.
The device is too expensive and personalized to audition. One would only be fortunate if he knew someone locally with such a device.
"So my experience is that progress has been made with digital reproduction and obviously differs from yours. We are most likely both correct in the context of our experiences, although this must make for confusing reading by others!!"
Although our experiences are different, which in itself is perfectly OK, I also base my opinions on how audio and music has "progressed" to the general public. People are not banging down the doors for server-based audio, high-resolution digitized audio, or even products that claim to yield high-fidelity performance. To the general population, the trend is smaller size, compressed recordings, and convenience.
And it took days!
Not sure why the other person you refer to regretted ripping his CDs. Surely he still had the originals?
And yes, I've compared AQ ex the modded Esoteric to the Sooloos and they both sounded equally great to these ears. But as I posted elsewhere at 75 my hearing is not as good now as decades earlier so again, comments are tempered with the caveat of "my experience" which might not equate to that from someone else.
Yes the Meridian Sooloos is obscenely priced and I've no doubt there will be other systems emerging that are as good at a much cheaper price. They exist now but do not appear to be as ergonomic as Sopoloos - something important to me. Mind you the search function needs more work for classical music but I'll live with it for the moment.
John
Sadly (or is it happily?) an incurable audio-video nutter with an indecent number of toys. Classical music forever!!!!
"Not sure why the other person you refer to regretted ripping his CDs. Surely he still had the originals?"
I think he had the originals, that wasn't the issue...... It was all the work he put into this, only to come to the realization that the sound wasn't nearly as good as he initially hoped or thought. His initial raves turned out to be "placebo effect". He even admits it. He just laments about the "time wasted".
He did try other sound cards, external DACs, software, OS (Linux), and even power cords to the PC, but nothing rescued the situation.
Post a Followup:
FAQ |
Post a Message! |
Forgot Password? |
|
||||||||||||||
|
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: